Thursday, March 1, 2012

Where's the Woolly and other Freak Searches

I am growing a few seedlings this year that I check several times a day for evidence weirdness.  I'm definitely drawn to plants that are unusual and this year has been no exception.  When I heard there was a really furry tomato that was also BLUE I had to have it.  I later read the rest of the description and learned it was an F3, meaning that chances were good that there was going to be a whole lot of variety in the seeds.  Ruh roh, that means I might not get the fuzzy blue I'm pining for!

My angst over Seattle's Blue Woolly Mammoth has surrounded whether or not I  was lucky to choose a few seeds from the pack  that will give me the traits I want.  So far so good.  Despite my horrible camera skills I think it is clear that I have some blue (aka purple) going on with these guys.  Since these are the only purple ones in the tray I'm hopeful their blue(purple) is from breeding and not from cold which can happen with tomatoes.

The other trait I am hoping for is big time fuzz!  I'm talking seriously hairy weird looking plants.  Again, the early signs are good.  The plant on the left definitely has the fuzziest stem out of any plants in the tray.  The seedling in the foreground looks like its first set of real leaves might have some big hairs going on.  If I have to choose between blue and fur I choose blue but I really want both.

The other current freak getting a lot of poking these days is a single seedling of Maiden's Gold.  Two of these seedlings are very green.  One is not.  Since I really love this color of green, I am hopeful this will be its mature color and that is lighter color is not a symptom of some sort of nutrient deficiency.  That would be strange since it is sharing the exact same soil as the other greener seedlings but I have asked about it at Tomatoville. Tomatoville is where way smarter tomato than me hang out. 

Finally the last freak in the tray is Fuzzy Pink Boar.  This one is bugging me because it has such a cool name and the plant looks absolutely normal.  I need to find out if the only fuzz on this plant is on the tomato, which might be disappointing except for the fact that the colors on the tomato are cool all by them self.  I guess time will tell!

3 comments:

spurge said...

Wow, I've never heard of a fuzzy blue tomato! I once grew a tomato called 'Garden Peach' which was SUPPOSED to be fuzzy and peach, and actually taste fruity, but the plant ended up having none of those characteristics. Perhaps it was because only a certain percentage of offspring carry those traits (or maybe I just got the wrong plant!)

Unknown said...

Will you be sharing at the "Seed Swap" this weekend? I wish I had seeds to swap- may go just to see what it is all about.
MO

Stacy said...

I hate it when I get the wrong seed spurge. That sort of thing is enough for me to stop doing business with a company.

Mo I won't be attending Seed Swap this weekend. I agree, it sounds interesting though.

Stacy